Monday, July 12, 2010

Echo Orbiter cites Picasso, Ayn Rand and The Flaming Lips as influences. With this sort of input, the output is guaranteed to be intriguing. Brothers Justin and Colin Emerle have created, with their latest full-length, Euphonicmontage, an album that is as close to cubist as you can get with sound. The neo-psychedelic "collage" is due out September 28th. Musical sounds that come out of left field, fuzzed up guitars, and unexpected breakdowns that sound like gears and machines whirling out of control, are all assembled to form Echo Orbiter’s eccentric songs. Still, it's all solidly in indie rock territory.

The brothers first formed the band back in 1996, finding themselves creating music in the era and influence of Elephant 6. It was at this time that they worked with The Lilys, Kindercore Records, and shared a stage with the likes of Elf Power, Of Montreal, The Apples in Stereo and Olivia Tremor Control. The Elephant 6 spirit, which is all about independence and self-promotion, is clearly still alive in Echo Orbiter. Euphonicmontage was produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by Justin himself. "This record is a culmination of 15 years of experimenting with sounds, styles, structures, and arrangements and is a true leap for us, probably the biggest for us from one record to another," says Justin, "We've taken our ‘psychedelic’ and ‘artistic’ roots and completely integrated it into something truly original; that's something I'm personally proud of."

The songs that fly from Euphonicmontage were fashioned by first laying down the intricate assemblage of sounds,"...it was recorded in dozens of segments on several different recording machines and pieced together in post-production," says Justin, and then writing lyrics to match. While the song subjects are ripe with demented whimsy, “This Worm in Rigor Mortis,” for instance, it’s just as easy to get lost in the richly textured music. Covered with layers of rich sonic soundscapes, guitar effects and wonky synthesizers, Echo Orbiter has created an album they deem futuristic, but accessible.